Of Gods and Men
by STaR Productions
Summary: Ryu was commanded by his Goddess to destroy his oldest friend for his betrayals. Ryu tried to carry out her wishes, but an unexpected twist leads him to wake up in the Wyndian desert, with no memory of who he is... what's a dragon to do?
1. Chapter 1

**R: Hello, this is a story idea I've had for quite a while but I couldn't think of what to apply it to! But then in the middle of one fine night it occurred to me! Breath Of Fire 4! It fits soooo perfectly! Now I know that this may seem a bit vague but you'll see what I mean once the story gets into full swing (which will be a while but not too long) I hope that you will enjoy it!**

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The scene opens on a blue haired young man, running as fast as he could manage through the halls of a great castle. He was gulping down air as he ran, feet pounding on the stone. This was something that he never thought he would be doing, fleeing from his long time friend… now turned foe at the whim of fate.

_How? Just how did he get that powerful? Why did it have to come to this…Fou-Lu…_

He shook away these thoughts and continued running as fast as he could muster. As he ran, he spotted foes ahead, lowly grunts that he'd spared on his way in, as he focused on his main foe. This time he dispatched them with ease, just a quick yet powerful sword slash from his running figure was enough to send their blood fountaining from their bodies to stain his shirt red.

He made it to the lift, slowly catching his breath as it ascended through the floors. He sat down, his breathing slowly returning to its normal rate.

_There's no way that he could have got that strong so quickly! This isn't going to be easy…_

The lift stopped and he immediately broke off into a sprint, darting out of the lift room and heading up the stairs faster then any _mortal_ could. Once he had climbed 3 flights of stairs a Cyclops appeared, attempting to ambush him. Larger than its recently deceased brethren, this would require a larger amount of concentration to defeat.

The Cyclops drew back its mighty arm and launched an enormous hammer at the young warrior, who deftly dodged it with a sidestep. Running across the cracked ground, the mysterious man counterattacked with savage speed, and in less than a second the Cyclops' head rested on the cold stone.

He continued past the corpse and ran ahead, only one thought on his mind: _I've got to get out of here!_ _If I do I can… I can't do anything by myself! I need help…_

He ran up the stairs four at a time in his haste, and was soon on yet another lift, resting on the railing to catch his breath. Panting in the dark silence of the lift, he leaned heavily on the wood, letting the draft from the fast moving lift cool him.

_Why does it have to end this way? We were…we were…friends…_

The lift stopped and he ran off again, this time entering a vast chamber. In this room he remembered fighting an artificial dragon, it still eluded him how his foe had managed to make such a vile creature. He had thought that creating such a thing would be impossible, but his eyes had not deceived him, for the corpse of the creature was still there as he ran past.

He continued running, his footsteps and heavy breathing echoing in the empty halls, his eyes adjusting to the dim lighting. He was so far underground that they couldn't rely on natural sunlight, instead there were dull lamps hanging from the walls in a half-hearted attempt to illuminate the darkness.

It had been a tough battle to defeat the manufactured dragon, it taking a few minutes at least for him to emerge victorious… a very long time for one such as him. That was nothing however compared to the power of the one he found himself attempting to escape from.

He ran through the next entryway, navigating his way through the long and twisty corridors. Finding the necessary items to gain access to this area had been difficult; Fou-Lu had placed the keys well, making them difficult to find.

After a few minutes of running he made it to another lift, again taking the time it took to reach the top to catch his breath. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, noticing that the back of his hand became smeared with dark blood from his many enemies. Looking down at himself, he could see that his once white shirt and blue trousers were now a vile crimson.

His eyes fell upon his sword, still clutched in his right hand, slippery now with the dripping red. This sword had served him well for many years, and he hurriedly wiped the blade clean as the lift slowed to a stop.

_Good! Only one more lift to go until I can escape…so I can return later and…kill…him…_

Just a few more twisting corridors and the last lift would be in his sight. Gathering himself, he began again to run, cutting down those small foes foolish enough to stand in his way with quick and easy strikes. Within no time at all he was at the last lift, and it quickly ascended to what he knew was the door leading away from this place.

_This is it the last door! Try and get me now Fou-Lu! _

He could see daylight! Desperately wanting to escape he ran up the small flight of stairs and reached toward the door.

SLAM!

The door had closed shut with a very final echo. He hammered the door desperately trying to break it open but it wouldn't budge. He gave up slumping to the floor.

"Such feeble attempts will not work…Ryu!"

He turned round responding to his name, light blue eyes finding the dark brown ones of his friend, rival, and foe.

"Fou-Lu…don't do this!" exclaimed Ryu as he rose to his feet.

"I apologise but I cannot! Our fates are at risk! Thou should help me, not hinder me!"

"You know that I can't do that! Now let me OUT!"

"I am sorry, old friend but I cannot allow this! Either thou shalt join me or…thou shalt be no more!"

"Fine, it seems that we are left with no more options!"

Ryu charged toward Fou-Lu with rage in his eyes. Fou-Lu summoned his sword and skilfully blocked the predictable attack with barely a movement of his arm. The clang of the swords could be heard through out the castle as Ryu jumped back and, spinning backwards, performed a powerful slash at his opponent. Fou-lu easily dodged the attack by what seemed to be a simple step to the left, and countered with a strong overhead swing, which Ryu barely managed to guard against. The two of them were locked in a struggle for dominance as they pushed their swords against one another.

"Why…are…you…doing this?" questioned Ryu, his teeth clenched.

"Because it has to be done!"

Ryu let out a roar as he pushed off Fou-Lu sending the God-Emperor flying backwards. Fou-Lu landed gracefully next to the top of the stairs and levelled his line of sight with Ryu's eyes.

"Thou wouldst truly attempt to stop me?" Foul-Lu questioned.

"Yes! I don't know what you're up to but I know it isn't good!"

Fou-lu grinned at his fellow's words, making Ryu uneasy. And he knew why. Fou-Lu's eyes began to glow yellow as he charged up his powers, and Ryu knew that soon, he would be transforming into a dragon. Ryu decided to do the same. They would do battle as equals, not imprisoned in these cages of mortal flesh that were so weak and pitiful.

Ryu felt the power flowing through him, a welcoming warmth that reached everywhere in him from his fingertips to the centre of his heart. He could feel his body changing to accommodate this new power but when he looked up he noticed Fou-lu charging up a ball of white energy above his head, smiling triumphantly.

_Damn! It wasn't a dragon form it's…_

Ryu quickly concentrated his power on to teleporting away to avoid the attack, but it was a lot harder while in mid-transformation. Unfortunately it was now too late as Fou-Lu had charged up the attack fully! He threw his hand forward and opened his palm towards Ryu as he completed the spell.

"Whiteout!"

The ball of energy flew towards Ryu engulfing him completely. The clash of energies was too much, the dragon form, the attempt at teleportation and the powerful Whiteout caused Ryu to lose control and he vanished without a trace.

Fou-Lu narrowed his eyes, trying to locate his opponent. The stones were scorched and blackened, half melted where the dragon warrior had stood mere moments ago. Fou-lu walked over to it and knelt, examining it carefully.

"Hmmm…what hath happened? Where have you gone?"

Fou-Lu looked around and stood thoughtfully, entertaining briefly all of the possibilities of where Ryu could have been sent. After a moment, he smiled, his shining teeth gleaming in the darkness of the stone chamber.

"It seems that the chase is on once again!"

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**R: So? Was it e****xciting **enough? I believe so but I want to know what you lot think! The basic events will follow the game closely but I will be making changes later on, so it fits with my idea of the story. Anyway I hope you can be p**atient for the next bit, and until next time!**


	2. Chapter 2

**R: Well then! The second chapter...it's about bloody time huh? I apologise, I've been busy. This should have been up far earlier but well...here it is now! Please enjoy!**

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In the middle of the desert a single Sandflier skittered its way across the sand dunes and dips. There were only two people onboard there was a young woman in a blue dress she wore a matching headband and wore a necklace with a green jewelled pendent, her name was Princess Nina she was the next in line for the throne of Windia and like all Windains had a pair of wings flowing from her back.

The other companion was a Woren or more specifically the Chief of the Woren tribe his name was Cray. He wore a purple jacket that fitted loosely and showed off a lot of his muscles, he was also wearing a pair of white trousers although they were noting more than a dull grey by now.

He was currently piloting the Sandflier, his ringed tail flapping around in the wind. The desert was cool and refreshing on a night rather than the scorching heat of the day; it made you feel as if your skin was melting.

The Sandflier it's self was quite large, it had enough room for at least a couple of months worth of supplies although that was far more than what was needed they still nearly filled the hold.

Nina was outside of the cabin standing on the bow of the Sandflier leaning against a railing, looking up at the rapidly fading night sky. The faint glimmer of stars could still be made out from the light of the rising sun.

Looking up at the twinkling stars reminded her of her youth. She and her sister, Princess Elina would step out on the balcony looking at the stars viewing their gleaming magnificence. She smiled at these memories and spoke out.

"Do you think we'll find her?"

"Of course we will! I won't stop until we do…I swear it!" replied Cray

Nina was soothed a little bit by his response all she wanted to hear was "everything's going to be okay don't worry!" but some where in the back of her mind she didn't quite believe it.

The Sandflier was speeding along; a mountain could be seen into the distance to the right. Cray looked up and saw that the sun was almost already directly above them, he looked back toward Nina and noticed that she was crouching slightly and fanning the her self in a futile attempt to cool down, he locked the steering mechanism in position and rushed over to her.

"Are you okay? Maybe you should go inside where it's cooler!?" Said Cray

"No, no I'll be fine don't worry about me! What ever it takes to find my sis!"

"Look just don't over do it okay?"

"Over do it? I haven't done anything you've done every thing! If anything I should be taking over!"

Cray suddenly looked stern and went back to the steering mechanism as though he shrugged off the suggestion.

"I'll be fine I'm worried about you! If you were to…this would all be pointless!"

"Okay I take the hint I'll be careful!"

"Look, maybe we should try and find some shade? And travel at night?"

Nina realised that she couldn't win this argument when Cray got protective she wouldn't hear the end of it, so she decided that Cray was right and nodded her head.

Cray acknowledged this and steered the Sandflier toward what looked like some old ruins while Nina took shelter inside the small cabin of the Sandflier.

Miles and miles of yellow sand passed by them. After a few minutes of rest Nina stood up and stretched her wings and walked up to Cray.

"How long do you think we'll be?" asked Nina

"Provided there aren't too may problems we should reach Synesta in a couple of days!"

Nina smiled and looked out toward the horizon she squinted her eyes in an attempt to not get blinded by the sun and saw movement at a distance away.

She moved further up the Sandflier and saw what looked like a giant green worm with peculiar patterns and several fins jump out of the sand and dive straight back in.

"Oh wow! Look Cray I think it's the sand dragon! Can we get closer?"

"Hmm…I don't know!"

"Come on its harmless right? When have you heard of a dragon attacking people?"

"Ugh! Alright just this once though we don't want to loose too much time!"

Cray steered the Sandflier toward the mighty dragon keeping at a safe distance just to be careful. He saw that Nina was smiling with wonder at the great creature it made him happy to see that she could find joy during these dark times.

The mighty beast jumped and dove again and again causing huge clouds of sand to erupt whenever it made contact with the ground. Nina watched in joy as the dragon 'swam' through the sand with ease.

Even though Cray kept his distance the creature always seemed to be moving closer. Yet again the great dragon dove beneath the golden sands but for some reason Nina had a bad feeling.

Her smile faded as she turned to Cray with a worried expression, he too had a nervous expression, which quickly turned in to a stern face.

"I'm getting us out of here! Right now!" exclaimed Cray

Nina nodded and Cray manipulated the controls. The Sandflier swerved to the left and was now quite a distance away from where they last saw the dragon, but Cray still wasn't satisfied he kept a careful eye out for the great beast.

His eyes flicked around left and right he noticed a disturbance in the sand and steered the Sandflier around to the right of it, just as the sand dragon dove up from the ground and soared in the air for a few moments before crashing back down narrowly missing the Sandflier.

"Harmless huh?" Cray thought out loud

Cray thought that he was safe for the moment as he increased the speed of the Sandflier hoping that he could possibly out run the dragon, he knew that he couldn't but maybe he could out manoeuvre it.

He manipulated the controls and avoided a large rock that had obviously been in the desert for a long time it grooves carved into it by multiple sand storms. And who knows maybe the dragon caused a few of them.

He looked ahead and couldn't see any clouds of sand, or more reassuring; the dragon it's self. That was when he saw Nina's expression, he turned round and looked over the top of the cabin and saw the dragon diving its way toward them jumping up and crashing back down.

He studied its pattern carefully, watching rise and fall in an almost set pattern. He judged the distance between it and the Sandflier and came to a conclusion.

"Hold on to something!" Cray commanded

Nina complied and grabbed a hold of the railing next to her and nodded to Cray informing her that she had a tight grip.

He waited for it to get closer and he didn't have to wait long it was directly behind the Sandflier. He watched it dive down and counted the seconds for it to rise again.

"_3…2…1…"_

He watched it as it arced straight up it "_Now!" _he thought to him self, as he pulled on the brake as hard as he could muster.

The Sandflier drastically lost speed as the sand dragon over shot them it was almost like slow motion there was a trail of sand in the air as dragon jumped out of the ground. He could see the markings on its underbelly; he'd never gotten this close to such a powerful creature before, not even the wind dragon that inhabited the golden pains near the Woren village.

Time seemed to resume its normal rate of passage as the dragon impacted the ground just in front of the Sandflier. Sand kicked up from its impact obscured Cray's vision as it dove under ground.

"Damn that was too close! Nina be careful!" Cray shouted

Cray increased speed once again; he knew it wouldn't fall for the same trick again so now it was an all-out race to the nearest shelter away form the deranged beast

Unfortunately the dragon's attacks were growing more frequent Cray's masterful steering managed to avoid the demented dragon, a hard left then a hard right, it was getting harder and harder to avoid the creature as its attacks became more ferocious.

The mighty dragon attempted to use some of its own tactics and carefully attacked with the utmost accuracy. It dived at the left hand side of the noisy piece of floating wood.

Its plan had worked the vehicle had turned right, getting ever closer to a large outcrop of rocks. It could smell the fear of the mortals who were onboard of the device. It was invigorating, every time it caught the slightest whiff of that glorious scent it attacked even more.

With a few more carefully placed attacks, its prey was even closer to the hunters trap. Cray had noticed that the Sand dragon's attacks didn't seem to be trying to connect anymore, but more like a diversionary tactic.

He cast his eyes further out on the horizon and squinted.

"_Leading us into the sun huh? Clever I can't see…a…thing…other than large pointy rocks!"_ he thought to him self.

Cray waited for the next attack and stayed on course not moving as the great dragon dive-bombed the Sandflier…and missed.

"_I knew it! Right I'm out if here!"_

With a hard left the rock outcrop was well behind him, he smiled at the small victory. But that quickly faded as he saw the familiar clouds of dust created by the sand dragon underneath the surface.

He could sense its outrage from avoiding its trap. It jumped at a huge height casting a large shadow over Cray and Nina intent to completely destroy the Sandflier. But Cray wouldn't allow this.

With a bone-shaking jerk on the control lever the sand flier performed a perfect 180. He sped off in the opposite direction of the Sand dragon. Cray let out a very confident "Ha!" as the Sand Dragon became nothing but a small black speck on the horizon behind them.

He didn't know why but he looked out to his left and noticed clouds of sand flowing along side. Cray sighed he knew that it would be difficult if not impossible to escape the sights of a dragon. What he wondered at was just why it was attacking.

The Dragon dove out of the sand again and Cray attempted to steer him and Nina to safety. He got extremely lucky; as the Dragon had just missed by mere millimetres it left scratch marks on the side of the Sandflier.

He could see it preparing for another attack as it curved it's body and sprang upwards toward the side of the Sandflier…and completely missed he couldn't tell why but what he did know is that he couldn't see it at all…nor could he hear it.

His luck finally ran out, as the dragon rose up from the large dunes to their left and Cray didn't have enough time to steer away.

He could only look on in horror as the dragon's circular jaw with hundreds of extremely sharp teeth crashed into the side of the ship.

Nina let out a scream as the Sandflier flew up into the air and came tumbling down it weathered the crash but barely. Black smoke plumed from the side on the vehicle it had evidently hit something to do with the engine.

But Cray couldn't relax now there was more sand being flown around to his right he predicted another attack and steered hard to the left, keeping his eye on the dragon's position he got further away. Cray heard a loud bang as part of the engine blew he looked to his left and saw even more thick black smoke billowing from the hole in the side if the craft, Cray cursed as the Sandflier began to loose speed.

He looked back toward the last known position of the dragon…it was gone. Cray knew this was bad news he looked toward Nina.

"Are you okay? It'll be back soon hold on tight!"

Nina nodded and bear hugged the railing as Cray used the remaining momentum to steer the ship.

Then he heard a rumbling a looked to the side of the Sandflier and saw sand being flown up as the dragon passed underneath.

Cray gritted his teeth and grabbed a hold of the nearest railing as the dragon soared above the Sandflier and came down on the bow sending the Sandflier flying into the air it flipped once or twice, it was difficult to tell when you're holding on for your life.

The Sandflier impacted the light sands, luckily the right way up it bounced back up from the landing and came down with a shocking thud but this time the nose of the bow had berried its self under the sand. The Sandflier continued to slide for a little bit longer until it eventually came to a stop.

Cray realised his grip and looked around and saw Nina still holding on to the railing, he continued to look around and couldn't see any sign of the dragon, it was as if it had never been there.

"Hmm…Nina are you okay?"

Nina slowly uncurled from the safety of the railing and looked round to Cray there was fear in her eyes and she was shaking heavily.

"Nina talk to me!" Exclaimed Cray as he held Nina.

"I-I-I-I'm f-f-fine! Don't worry I'm just a bit shaken that's all! But you are you okay?"

Cray examined him self he looked down and his once brilliant purple shirt was now nothing more than a drab, sand infested piece of cloth. He surveyed the surroundings, it was what you expected from a desert, sand as far as you could see, but he recognised the area.

"Yeah I'm fine but the Sandflier…"

The bow was half buried under the sand. Cray tried to walk over to the controls when he remembered that the engine blew. He hit the steering mechanism is rage.

"Damn it! I think it's totalled. There are some spares in the hold so hope fully I can fix it! Look this might take a while are you alright putting up the tent?"

Nina nodded shakily as Cray got all of the necessary equipment from the hold. He had his toolbox and spares in the engine room and handed Nina a tent.

"Be careful okay? If you need anything don't hesitate to ask okay?"

"Don't worry I'll be fine just get the Sandflier up and running and I'll cool off in the shade!" chuckled Nina

Cray was glad that she was still laughing

"Alright I'll check on you every ten minuets so I hope I'll only see you 'cooling off' right? Don't go off wandering!"

Nina nodded and began work on the tent while Cray sighed and checked the engine.

"This'll take awhile!"

It was about an hour later when Cray returned from the Sandflier ridden in sweat and a worried look on his face.

Nina sat up in the shade in an attempt to provoke a response from Cray. He dried his face with a piece of torn cloth and walked over to Nina.

"It's no good the intakes and the cylinders are completely clogged with sand! And as if to top it off the all the fuel lines have snapped! There's no way I can fix that!"

"Have we got any spare parts?" Questioned Nina.

"Well…yeah but not enough! I can fix some parts like unclogging the intakes and cylinders…but I'll still need new parts."

Nina rose to her feet and had a look of determination plastered all over her face.

"Then we'll just go and get some then…right?"

"Not a good idea to leave the Sandflier on its own, were just on the outskirts of the desert! We leave it alone it'll get 'salvaged' and then we'd have no Sandflier to fix!"

"Then one of us should stay here and the other gets the parts! Simple!"

"What? I can't leave you alone! What if you get injured? And besides I can't let you guard the Sandflier!"

Nina took offence to this and had a very angered expression, if it were humanly possible there would have been steam coming out of her ears.

"What do you mean by that? Do you mean I'm too weak? That I'm a woman and I can't defend myself?"

"Whoa! Calm down I didn't mean it like that! Look if you're that determined I suppose I can let you get the parts but…I'm very concerned! I don't want you to go on your own be extremely careful…fine I'll write you a list of them hold on!"

Cray entered the Sandflier and returned a few minuets later with a piece of paper in one hand and a sheathed sword in the other.

He walked over to Nina and handed her the paper and held the sword in front of her.

"That's the list shouldn't be to hard to get a hold of and…just in case you need to, use this sword if your in trouble!"

Cray sighed and handed over the sword with concern and worry in his eyes.

"Of course you won't get in trouble will you? I hope you don't have to use that thing!"

"Cray I'll be fine! Calm down! I'll be back before you know it! Well I guess that I'll see you later."

"Wait! Do you actually know where it is your going?"

"Erm…"

"Didn't think so! This is what makes me worry! Okay there should be a town south of here called…erm…Sarai! You should be fine there! Got it? And for God's sake be careful!"

"Yup! South of here! And don't worry I'll be fine! I'll get back before you know it!"

And with that last statement Nina walked off in to the desert with a smile on her face. It was very rare for her to do anything on her own. Cray would try to help or back at the castle servants would do everything!

The only thing she could do on her own without other people interfering was using magic. This is why she got so good at it because she'd practise magic all the time.

After about twenty minutes walking and Cray had long passed out of view she saw a wagon further ahead just in the fringes of her sight appearing as a black speck on the horizon.

She began rushing toward it when the air became slightly colder she stopped in her tracks and looked up.

There was a huge ball of white energy in the sky then it suddenly came rushing to the earth like a bolt of lightning. When it hit, a large black dome formed starting off small but expanding to a huge size.

While this was happening Nina thought she heard a man yelling. As the dome shrunk into nothing it left behind a large crater in its wake.

Nina quickly rushed over to the impact site to see just what this large dome was and to find out if anyone needed help.

As she ran toward the crater she sensed a colossal amount of power, something that rivalled the dragon's own power…if they were to gather in one place.

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**R: Ohhh the mystery! Anyway I hope you enjoyed it, please tell me what you think! Hopefully it won't take as long next time (weather permitting XD). Bye!**


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